Baseball

Yes, I am dating someone who slid into my DMs, but I am also dating a college athlete. I am dating a senior college athlete. I am dating a man that has the most respect on the team, the one who is always encouraging the guys, and has been around the longest. This man has dedicated his college years to this sport and the team. He has spent many hours outside of practice and weights meticulously taking care of the field and continuing to improve himself. He is not the only one who lives this life of morning weights, followed by class all day, afternoon practice, and then homework…there are 40 other men who lead the same life. When you spend mornings together, classes together, breaks together, and endure practices together, you will without a doubt be extremely close with each other. These guys have quite a remarkable bond.

Before I started dating Matthew, I was always intimidated by the “baseball corner” in our school’s PLC. It is a just a corner with some couches and chairs that is home to the baseball guys in between classes. However, they are rather loud, and their bond is always what intimidated me. So when I started talking to him, I still wouldn’t go to the corner because I was still so nervous, so he would venture over to me. Even after we started dating I was really scared. One day Matthew “made” me sit with him on couch one day. I was terrified, but I slowly relaxed and got to experience this bond amongst these guys from a different perspective. They worked on homework together, talked about weights, asked about plans, and SO.MANY. INSIDE JOKES. These guys are interesting individuals because well…they are college guys. I am sure they can be mature when they need to be, but a majority of the time it is playing poker and jokes.

One thing that definitely surprised me was, the guys talked to me…not immediately…and not in depth conversations, but they made and effort. They learned my name. Now a little over a month since we started dating I have no problem with venturing into corner without Matthew and I greet the guys on my way to and from class. Something that I once found very intimidating is now a source of happiness and comfort. I like being able to watch these guys interact and I laugh when they tell their inside joke, not because I understand them, but because I am laughing at their interactions and comfort level with one another. I also care about these guys because they love and support each other and they take care of the guy I deeply care about.

When I became Matthew’s girlfriend I wanted him to know that I do not expect him to put me before the team. He has been a part of this program for 5 years, and he has made a tremendous impact on the program and the program on him. It would not be right of me to be selfish or reasonable for me to ask him to put me before the team. I want him to enjoy his last year as a Cardinal because again, he is part of something special. I am honored to be the girlfriend of a senior college baseball player. I am honored to be able to watch these guys interact and work towards the conference championship every day. I am honored to give guys rides home. I am honored to play them in Mario kart and almost beat them. Lastly, I am excited to be in the stands this spring and watch these guys show how hard they have worked in the off season and how much they want to win.

Happy day after Thanksgiving! I am sure everyone is now officially in full holiday mode and maybe a little tired if they were out braving the crazy crowds. I have gone Black Friday shopping several times, but the past two years I have chosen to do my shopping online from the comfort of my home. However, I hope everyone got the deals they were hoping for.

Anyways, I thought I would delve a little more into my personal life and talk about my current relationship and how it has taken me by surprise and the reason I have been MIA.

On March 13th, 4 days before my 21st birthday I got a DM from someone who attends the same college as I do, but we had never really talked. This person was pretty well known at my school, and I had liked a lot of his tweets, but a lot of people did so it was not anything weird. When he DM’d me I immediately screenshotted it and sent to my friends, like any reasonable person because I didn’t know what to do and I honestly thought it was a mistake. I was told to respond and so I did…with “Hey” in response to his “Hey”. (I sort of expected something a little funnier and more creative coming from this person, but clearly his simplicity worked).

He asked what I was doing and so I gave him the honest answer, “Staring at the wall and thinking about making a grilled cheese.” I sort of thought maybe he wouldn’t reply, but he did. So we ended up messaging back and forth for the next couple days faithfully, and then we decided to exchange numbers. From then on, we would text everyday, all day saying both good night and good morning. We learned a lot about each other, of course only from the aspect of friends.

School was coming to an end, but there was still a few weeks left, and me being my awkward self I just avoided him. I was also scared for a while for a couple reasons that don’t need to be mentioned. We continued to text and summer came. He stayed in the area for summer baseball and to work, but we never really hung out except for one time. (Through out the summer I would go to the same building he was living on campus to visit other friends and they would give me a hard time because they thought we had a thing. I honestly just thought he was a really good friend and I didn’t want him to get freaked out if he heard my friends, so I always told them to shut up…even though I did have a slight amount of feelings for him). Fall came and school started again. We finally hung out and it was a little bit awkward because the person I had been talking to for so long, and knew a lot about was in front of me.

During this time, it was a bit weird and there were some mixed emotions, but after some serious conversations and prayers said, we decided to hang out more and see how things went. After about a week or so I got inpatient and asked him what his intentions were. (Patience has never been my strong suit) He said he sort of thought we were already dating. I told him that it did feel like that, but I would like to be official at some point as I have struggled with “basically dating” someone for two years prior. In that moment he asked if I would like to be his girlfriend. Of course me being me I thought about saying no, but I resisted and said yes.

We went a day or two before telling anyone and then we talked about going Facebook official together. In my 21 years of existence, this was my first time being Facebook official. Granted I know being Facebook official is not the biggest deal, but to me it means that we are serious because I don’t want to do that and then 5 seconds later not being dating and have to have those awkard conversations. I knew that this relationship was and is very different than anything I have every had before. This man is the most caring guy I know, who is very serious about our relationship, who cares about my well being, and is a man of God. It doesn’t matter what he is doing, he amazes me. Even if I tell him not to worry about me or to do anything for me, he does it anyways. For instance, I forgot about an assignment the other week and I was going to have to miss lunch to get it done, so he offered to bring me something and i told him not to worry about it. Well, I looked up and a baseball player was handing me a box and said it was from Matt. He had put together something that he though I would like. While this is such a simple little gesture, I was really grateful and I couldn’t believe it…and he does things like this all of the time.

Some people have made the comment that this is something that has happened really quickly, but the fact of the matter is it is something that had developed over 7ish months. Some other people may say that I talk about him too much or that we are moving really quickly, but that is all relative. This is a guy that I really do care about and I know for a fact that God has put us in each other’s lives for a reason. I am excited to spend the up coming holiday’s and New Year with him, get to know and grow closer with his family, conquer our last semester together, go to his baseball games, and to see where we end up going!

I could have gone on for so much longer about everything that we have talked about, and the memories that we have already shared, but some of those things I think are meant to be kept between the two of us because that is what makes it special. Also, I don’t think that they are something that can be fully expressed via the internet.

Anyways, that is all for now and I will hopefully be posting some thing else rather soon.